Angry Unai Emery makes 'lazy' Aston Villa admission as he says players 'not fighting'

Unai Emery didn't mince his words in his post-match press conference after Aston Villa's draw with 10-man Sunderland. The Villa boss slammed his squad for showing laziness without the ball, struggling in physical battles, and appearing to have lost their way tactically.

Villa enjoyed a man advantage for over an hour following Sunderland's Reinildo receiving his marching orders for lashing out at Matty Cash.

Cash broke the deadlock in the 67th minute, unleashing a strike from distance that flew past Robin Roefs.

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But Villa were hauled back level moments later when Wilson Isidor pounced on Granit Xhaka's wayward header and slotted beyond Emi Martinez.

"We are not playing like I want," Emery confessed. "We have to adapt some new players in the structure, and we will need time with them. Others know we want to control the game with the ball.

"Their chances started with their goalkeeper. Long balls and second actions in our box. Like that, we are conceding chances. We had one player more. We didn't control the game doing passes, and passes, and passes. We did not take the right moment to attack them."

He continued: "We have to recover our identity. I am not frustrated with the result, but disappointed and frustrated about how we are playing. We are not feeling comfortable with our style. We have to try to recover our personality and confidence to play like we are training.

"Some players need to adapt, for example, Harvey Elliott was getting the ball and passing behind the defence without options. He needs to understand that he has the skills to play more passes and then do the pass behind or outside with better options.

"We were lazy sometimes defensively. Lazy. For example, the goal we conceded, we were lazy. Maybe it's because we didn't play in our style.

"We have experiences in three years, and how we felt confidence through it. Then, we can get better chances to dribble and be close to scoring.

"Watkins is not having chances to score, but he had the last one. Maybe if he scored, it would have been the click to change everything, but we have to continue work to try to look for it.

"Some attitude in some moments, usually the players have attitude. But sometimes because maybe they are a bit upset or not feeling good, they are not fighting. It is not something I can tell them like a punishment.

"Collectively we have to try and understand and feel better. Sunderland at home in this stadium are playing so motivated. Even playing with one less player, they were feeling strong."

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